Commencement Address 



BY 



Charles W. Fai rbanks 



Baker U n iver s i ty 

B A L DWI N, K A NSAS 

June 7, 1901 



Commencement Address 



BY 



Charles W. Fairbanks 




Baker U n iversi ty 

BALDWIN, KANSAS 

June 7, 1901 



190 1 

Levey Bros. & Co. 

Indianapolis 



'1 qoi 



l3Ap'0d 



3 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Commencement Day has no fellow. There is no 
other day in all the year like unto it. It is full of 
sweetness and life, of pleasant reminiscence and of 
happy expectation. It is essentially the day of youth, 
of splendid young womanhood and noble young 
manhood. Our elders live over the blessed days 
which have faded into the past, and are themselves 
young again. It is not the day of the pessimist, but 
is the hour of the optimist. It is the time when the 
virtues which dignify and glorify humanity amplest 
fruitage bear, and when we behold the splendor of our 
institutions, not with the eye of a mere political par- 
tisan, nor with the vision of a sordid materialist. 

This is a day when we withdraw from the busy 
marts, the affairs of state — ^when we leave the pul- 
pit and our briefs, and take stock, if you please, of 
those higher qualities which are our chief glory. 

I am reminded of the utterance of the gifted Curtis 
upon a similar occasion: ^ 'There is a modem Eng- 
lish picture," said he, 'Vhich the genius of Haw- 
thorne might have inspired. The painter calls it 
'How They Met Themselves.' A man and a woman, 
haggard and weary, wandering lost in the somber 
wood, suddenly come upon the shadowy figures of a 
youth and a maid. Some mysterious fascination 
fixes the gaze and stills the hearts of the wanderers 
and their amazement deepens into awe as they grad- 
ually recognize themselves as they were — the soft 
bloom of youth upon their rounded cheeks, the dewy 
light of hope in their trusting eyes, exulting confi- 
dence in their springing step, themselves blithe and 
radiant with the glory of the dawn.'' To-day we 
meet ourselves here as we were at our matriculation 
and during the years which were crowned at com- 
mencement — years which were the most luminous of 
all that we have lived. 



Those of us who have hitherto received our degrees, 
whether from this noble institution, so rich in its 
splendid influences, or from some of her sister institu- 
tions, come here, as you will do in after years, with 
keen and profound appreciation. These buildings 
for almost half a century have looked upon scenes 
like this. Thousands have come and gone, and many 
thousands more will come and go in the years before 
us. The faculty and the student body are ever chang- 
ing, yet our interest in the old university does not 
abate. These halls are of brick and stone and mor- 
tar, yet we have almost an affection for them. It was 
the great Webster who, when pleading the memorable 
cause of his alma mater, Dartmouth college, in the 
great supreme court of the United States, said, with 
visible emotion that moved those about him : "It is, 
indeed, a small college, but there are those who love 
it." 

You enter upon the activities of life under favor- 
able auspices. The omens are propitious. Your 
scholastic course, crowned the old century with its 
tremendous achievements. In all the centuries that 
are passed, not one was filled with such mighty and 
significant events in the onward march of humanity. 
'No such tremendous advance was before made in 
knowledge, in the arts. Science seems to have re- 
vealed the most hidden and important secrets of na- 
ture. She has scanned the heavens and fathomed the 
seas. She has asserted dominion over the enemies 
of man and made them his obedient servants. Fire 
and water and electricity have been made to do his 
bidding in countless ways. Time and space have been 
reduced in international communication and the 
world made relatively smaller; in fact, it has been 
reduced to a vast neighborhood. 

The zone of human liberty has been extended until 
about the greater portion of the globe man recognizes 



no master except Almiglitj God. The beams of civil- 
ization and righteousness are "cast afar" and where 
they penetrate, slavery and serfdom vanish as vice 
before virtue. 

We have a veneration for the past and it is vi^ell. 
Veneration is akin to gratitude, one of the gentlest 
virtues. We are grateful to those of the past v^^ho 
added to the sum of the world's knowledge. We are 
wont to linger about Athens and Rome. We study 
their histories, their mighty contribution to litera- 
ture, the arts and the sciences. The story of their 
triumphs and defeats, their glory and their shame, 
their rise and their fall, me familiar to us. 

We are grateful to those who have lighted a torch 
in any of the great departments of human experience. 
We delight to dwell with the old philosophers, with 
Socrates and Plato; with the old poets. Homer and 
Virgil ; with the old historians, Herodotus and Xeno- 
phon; with the old scientists, I^ewton and Davy; 
with the old musicians, Beethoven and Mozart, and 
with the old orators. We are their perpetual, grate- 
ful debtors. We have studied their philosophies. 
We have been moved by their verse. We have been 
made acquainted with the subtle mysteries of nature. 
We have been entranced by their song and have been 
stirred by their eloquence. We have been inspired 
by ''the exquisite grace of Raphael, and the sub- 
limity and energy of Michael Angelo.'' 

But we stand upon a summit unattained by them. 
The school boy of to-day is wiser than the venerable 
philosophers who studied in the groves of Academus. 

The magic of the laboratory discloses elements and 
combinations undreamed of by the fathers of chem- 
istry. 

With what rapture Galileo would turn the modem 
telescope to Venus and Jupiter and to worlds of 
which he knew not. 



6 



How Franklin would marvel at the electric current 
as it encircles the globe, freighted with intelligence 
and faithfully carrying the human voice thousands of 
miles, through cities, beneath rivers, across plains 
and amidst mountain fastnesses ! 

How Fulton would watch with rapture the modem 
merchantman cleaving the trackless sea with express 
train speed ! How he would have been stirred by 
the Oregon, that invincible steel monster of the deep, 
in her swift race from the Pacific to the Atlantic, 
that she might vindicate the national honor ! 

You enter upon the larger theater of life at an 
opportune time. There was never more need of 
educated men and women, who are willing to conse- 
crate themselves to the serious work of life, which 
makes for the betterment and exaltation of their 
fellow men. The field of your opportunity is un- 
limited. What you will accomplish can be measured 
alone by your will and your capacity. You will find 
in every avenue of opportunity which stretches before 
you men and women of ability and of zeal inviting 
you to enter the generous contest. 

You will meet with both encouragement and dis- 
couragement. The way may sometimes look dark 
and the future unpromising, but with stout heart, 
upright purpose and complete consecration to your 
work, you can and should win success. Walk erect; 
be self-reliant. In the final analysis your victories 
must be won through your own strong right arm. The 
way to place and power is open to all alike. Your fu- 
ture is to be determined, not by the accident of birth, 
not by what your ancestors were, but by what you 
are, by what you shall yourselves accomplish. Stand 
fast for the maintenance of civil and religious liberty 
for the preservation of these two great fundamental 
doctrines for which our forefathers contended with 
titanic power. 



Prc«note civic righteousness; do not avoid the 
caucus, fearing it will contaminate you, but attend 
it to the end that it may not contaminate the state. 
In the ballot box our liberties are compounded. See 
to it that it gives true expression of the public v^ill. 
Preserve it from pollution ; protect it and defend it 
as you would preserve the Ark of the Covenant, for it 
has been purchased by the priceless blood of count- 
less heroes upon the battlefields of the republic. 

To be an American citizen to-day means more than 
ever before, it means greater opportunity and en- 
larged responsibility. Each year finds us camped 
upon new heights in our onward march. 

The scholar must always have a care for the re- 
public. The university has, indeed, not been true to 
its opportunity if it has failed to inculcate an intense 
interest in the preservation of the republic and in 
its future weKare. The greater the knowledge which 
the student bears hence, the heavier his civic obliga- 
tions. The splendid national fabric, the like of which 
you have not thus far discovered in your historic 
research, is the fruit of the wisdom and patriotism 
of your fathers, and it must not be given over to those 
who comprehend not its full and splendid signifi- 
cance. 

We look upon our country grown great and strong. 
We compare it with others and rejoice at the com- 
parison. We are overmuch given, I fear, to boasting 
of our strength. We should not forget that real 
power needs no other herald than itseK. 

We take pride in our territory which spans the 
continent, which lies within the Arctic circle, and in 
the distant seas. 

We point to our rich fields, our vast forests and to 
the exhaustless treasures of the earth; to our splen- 
did cities and to our far-reaching highways of com- 
merce ; to our enormous trade statistics, to our in- 



8 



vincible fleets. But these, all these, are not our 
chief glory. We find our most cherished national 
achievement in the virtue and intelligence and in 
the all-pervading charity of our people. The rich 
manifestations of our commercial power, our mili- 
tary and naval strength, great and splendid as they 
are, are not to be counted when compared with the 
moral and intellectual grandeur of our people. 

There has been some suggestion that the Ameri- 
can people are given over to commercialism; that 
they are possessed of the materialistic spirit, and 
take too little note of the development of those finer 
and gentler qualities which are at once the flower 
and fruit of our civilization. We find the complete 
denial of this suggestion in our expanding common 
school system, in the development of our colleges and 
universities, in the countless charities and in the in- 
creasing number of those who are dedicating them- 
selves to the sacred work of the church. 

The pulpit was never filled by abler nor better 
men — men more thoroughly dedicated to their high 
and holy calling. 

The lecture room was never the source of more 
wholesome influences than it is to-day. 

There is on every hand, in every city, village and 
hamlet, a generous rivalry among men and women 
to promote some charity or some work which shall 
tend to uplift the vicious, the ignorant, and the un- 
fortunate. 

Those who accumulate wealth stand disgraced and 
dishonored if they do not use it for the benefit of 
others. 

Greater problems await you than engaged the at- 
tention of your fathers. But a few years ago, the 
United States, impelled by the appeals of humanity, 
drew the sword in her high and holy cause. Cuba 
had caught the spirit of liberty from the great re- 



9 



public, and wished herself to be free. The Span- 
ish government, schooled beyond all others in les- 
sons of cruelty, influenced by the spirit of the 
middle ages, undertook to retain her feeble hold 
by methods disgraceful even to savagery. Conditions 
on the island became intolerable. The moral sense 
of the United States was so offended against, that the 
congress, in the exercise of its constitutional power, 
declared war. The hour had arrived when the Span- 
ish flag must be withdrawn and cease forever to 
further contaminate the air of the Western conti- 
nent. It could no longer stay the progress of liberty 
and advancing civilization. It must either keep step 
with the march of the nations dedicated to freedom, 
or else retire to the peninsula of Spain, 

An army was summoned to execute the supreme 
decree of congress. It came from the farms, the 
workshops, the colleges and the universities, two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand strong. It came singing the 
Battle Hymn of the Republic : 

"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was bom across 

the sea. 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and 

me, 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make 

men free." 

The first blow was struck in Manila harbor, then 
one of the least and now one of the best known 
harbors in the world. Later came San Juan Hill and 
Santiago, and then came peace. The great Republic 
struck, not in anger, not against liberty, but for 
liberty and her sacred cause. It struck not for ter- 
ritorial aggrandizement, or the exploitation of com- 
mercial power, but to enlarge freedom's bounds. Our 
arms have given to us new peoples. They are un- 
familiar with the ways of republican government. 
They know not the blessings of our advancing civili- 



10 



zation. Their fortunes are joined with ours. Their 
destiny, in a high sense, is within our keeping. 

The problem which is before us is not free from 
perplexity. The way is filled with difficulties, but 
no one can entertain a doubt that we have the ca- 
pacity, the courage and a sense of justice, quite ade- 
quate to the task. 

There is new work for the school room, for school, 
college and university. Through them come the 
highest conception of the majesty and meaning of 
republican government, the true dignity of American 
manhood. 

We have heard much upon the hustings to the 
effect that the constitution follows the flag. Our 
constitutional expounders may differ with respect to 
this, but upon one question there is unity of senti- 
ment in every patriotic heart that abides within the 
limits of the republic, and that is that the American 
school house, the American college, and the Amer- 
ican university follow the flag. They are potential 
in their influence upon public thought, and more 
powerful than constitutions. They are the everlast- 
ing bulwark of national security. Close the school 
room, shut up the colleges and the universities, and 
the days of the republic are numbered. 

We are a people of peace and desirous of winning 
its ample trophies. Brilliant as have been our 
achievements in arms, our chief allurments are in 
the ways of tranquillity. Our history is but brief 
compared with that of the elder states, but we have 
fought many wars, and our flag is yet a total stranger 
to defeat. 

Our engagements have been, with but one excep- 
tion, with foreign powers. Our civil war was greater 
than all; more terrific than all. American con- 
tended with American with terrific power. The prize 
of battle was the life of the republic. The stories 



11 



of our heroes are upon the enduring pages of his- 
tory. Our battle fields and the countless graves of our 
soldiery tell of the tremendous cost of liberty. 

Let us hope that the days of war have passed ; that 
the sword shall remain undrawn forever. 

Let us inculcate a lofty spirit of brotherhood, and 
leave to the arbitral tribunals of peace the adjust- 
ment of international differences. There abide with 
us no questions or causes for domestic feud; for 
armed conflict. The cruel and imperious institu- 
tion of human slavery became a cornerstone of the 
republic. It was an offense to the laws of God and 
in good time it had to be mastered or master the 
republic. With the richest blood that ever coursed 
through human veins it was washed away. There 
lurks no such danger now. Our serious differences, 
if such there must be, will be with foreign powers. 

Our expanding greatness, outstripping other na- 
tions in our progress, may render us regardless of 
their rights. Power is sometimes thoughtless; it is 
sometimes autocratic. E^othing so becomes it as its 
sparing use. 

We should see to it that our country is pervaded 
with a sense of justice and of equity with respect to 
other powers. The demagogue and political time- 
server should not be permitted, for the purpose of pro- 
moting selfish ends, to undertake to foment discord be- 
tween our government and other nations. We should 
hold to the exalted rule of fair dealing between our- 
selves and the weakest as well as the strongest powers 
of the earth. If differences should arise — and in 
good time they no doubt will arise — we should seek 
their settlement in the arbitral tribunal rather than 
upon the field. 

In The Hague treaty we find the first and a sub- 
stantial step toward the consummation of this wish 
and the maintenance of international peace. 



12 



The last century was born amid the convulsions 
of war. The new century upon which we are enter- 
ing with such hopeful promise was ushered in, it is 
true, amidst the reverberation of guns on distant 
fields, but the engagements were comparatively slight 
and unimportant, and peace seems near at hand. 

What is the measure of success in life ? We re- 
gard that life most successful which has done most 
under its particular environment for the welfare and 
happiness of others. The person who is wholly self- 
centered is neither fit to live nor to die, and dying 
would, perhaps, better become him. The man who 
gathers and hoards his money merely that he may 
feast his covetous eyes upon it is of no earthly use 
to man or beast. The student who does not yield the 
rich treasure of his mind for the benefit of others is 
of little more worth to mankind than gold which lies 
forever buried in the lowest depths of earth, beyond 
the reach of man. 

We erect monuments to men because they have 
done something in behalf of other men ; because they 
have rendered service to others. We invoke canvas 
and marble and granite and bronze to commemorate 
their unselfish deeds. We pay no tribute to others. 

When one approaches the national capitol and 
observes the white shaft whose summit almost seems 
to hold communion with the clouds, he knows it was 
erected to perpetuate some noble character. 

That imposing monument at Springfield tells of 
one of the meekest and greatest of men, who lib- 
erated millions, created in the image of their Maker. 

And upon the banks of the Hudson stands a mauso- 
leum ''fit almost for a dead Diety,'' erected by his 
grateful countrymen to one who periled all in the 
cause of others. 

I looked upon the tomb of William of Orange in 
the venerable city of Delft, the Mecca of the patriot, 



13 



and his mighty services in behalf of his countrymen 
and of the Dutch republic passed before me. He lives 
in deeds done for others. 

The immortals are those who live beyond this brief 
hour, in things accomplished; accomplished for 
others, and not alone for self. Neither greed nor 
vanity has fellowship with immortality. 

We should cultivate the quality of mercy which 
is implanted within us. No nobler attribute has 
been given us than this. We may recall with profit 
Crittenden's story of the creation: '^When God 
first conceived the thought of man's creation, 
He called unto Himself the three angels who con- 
stantly wait at the throne. Truth, Justice and Mercy, 
and thus addressed them. Shall we make man ? And 
Truth answered, O God, make him not for he vdll 
pollute Thy sanctuaries. Shall we make man ? And 
Justice answered, O God, make him not for he will 
trample upon Thy laws. Shall we make man ? And 
Mercy, falling upon her knees and crying through 
her tears, said, O God, make man, and I will follow 
him through the dark paths he may have to tread. 
Then God made man and thus addressed him : Man, 
thou art the son of Mercy ; go thou and deal with thy 
fellowman." 

This university, though young in years, has ac- 
complished much. It has sent forth an alunmi that 
is carrying into their life-work' the noble precepts 
taught them here. They are meeting the demands 
of life in an intelligent, sturdy and courageous way. 
They are to be found in the pulpit, lifting their fel- 
lowmen to a serener atmosphere. 

They are to be found as teachers and professors 
in schools, colleges and universities, consecrated to 
as noble and worthy a cause as can summon men. 
They are shedding honor upon the bar where ability 
and fidelity are always in request. 



14 



They are adding luster to the bench, where men 
of learning, possessing a keen sense of justice and 
incorruptible integrity are always demanded. 

They are also to be found in the great mercantile 
and industrial institutions of the country, doing well 
their part. 

They are found upon the farms from which are re- 
cruited the best fiber of the republic. 

What you have so well learned here is well enough. 
\Vhat you have acquired from the classics, from his- 
tory, from all the literatures, from the laboratory; 
in short, all that you have acquired from the class 
room or from' the platform is of little avail in the 
great work which lies before you if you shall not win 
and hold the confidence of those with whom you shall 
fellowship, for in a large sense success in life is built 
upon confidence. It is the cornerstone of every suc- 
cessful career. Upon it rests the everlasting throne. 
'No stronger, better word was ever bom into the 
human tongue; without it empires fade, republics 
fall, and the church vanishes as a disordered dream. 
Confidence, the all-embracing, rich inheritance of a 
race, the children of men never lisped a grander 
word; upon its ample base society rests; it is the 
foundation upon which the temple of justice is 
erected; destroy it and chaos is come again. Confi- 
dence led Grant from Donelson to Appomattox, and 
Garfield from the towpath to the White House. Con- 
fidence is the handmaiden of the arts and the sicences. 
Confidence in one's self, in one's fellows, confidence 
in truth and righteousness, conquers the world. Con- 
fidence was the torch that led Galileo through the 
black night into the endless beauty of the garden of 
the skies. Without confidence it were better the les^ 
sons had not been learned ; that the lecture room had 
been closed forever. Confidence of others in you and 
you in others is the imperative, precedent condition 



1 



15 



to all progress, all success. The semblance of confi- 
dence, like spurious coin, may pass for a time, but 
genuine confidence, like pure gold, alone abides for- 
ever. 

Carry into every act a conscience. Win, if you 
may, the approval of your fellowmen, but above and 
beyond all, win the approval of your own conscience. 
Royalty can confer no decoration which will yield 
such enduring joy as the approval of one^s own con- 
science, i^either place nor power nor the world's 
applause can bring the measure of satisfaction, the 
inexpressible ecstasy, which comes from the approval 
of that imperious censor, our own conscience. With 
its approval we can dare all, sufl'er all, do all. 

''Yet still there whispers the small voice within, 
Heard through gain's silence, o'er victory's din ; 
Whatever creed be taught, or land be trod, 
Man's conscience is the oracle of God." 

I congratulate you that you have come to this 
historic hour and that you are to receive from your 
alma mat^r the high mark of her testimony to your 
fidelity and your scholarship. Bear her commission 
without dishonor. 

What boundless opportunity invites you. Carry 
into the work of life a noble purpose. Go forth 
inspired by an altruistic spirit; go forth with faith 
in your destiny. 

You begin life with a new century which is to be 
more luminous than the one which has just sunk 
behind the western hills. Our country is growing 
better, not worse. We hear much of the evil tend- 
encies of .the times, of retrogression. But all coun- 
tries and all times have had those persons who look 
only upon the dark and dismal side of things. 
"Ever since I began to make observations upon the 
state of my country," said Lord Macaulay, "I have 



16 



been seeing nothing but growth and hearing of noth- 
ing but decay. The more I contemplate our noble 
institutions, the more convinced I am that they are 
sound at heart, that they have nothing of age but its 
dignity, and that their strength is still the strength 
of youth." 

This utterance is admirably suited to the hour. 
We are not decadent. We are the inheritors of the 
wisdom of all the centuries past. We are in the 
midst of virile youth. 'No great vice lies at the root 
of our growth, which promises to lay in ruins the 
matchless fabric of our institutions. 

Those who shall come hither in future years and 
perform the services which we perform to-day will 
speak with a profounder wisdom than we possess. 
They will tell of triumphs in the way of knowledge, 
of virtue and of patriotism that are beyond the 
limits of our present vision. Historian, poet and 
orator will tell not of decay and ruin, but of whole- 
some growth and expanding power. Let us retire 
from this hallowed place and from the memorable 
incidents of this day with a firm resolve to bequeath 
to those who shall follow us, a land irrevocably 
dedicated to liberty and law ; a land where knowledge 
is the only master and wisdom the only crown. 



I 



T ■^- 



2 



029 898176 




